Bentley Adds Three Product Firsts to OpenPlant Line

In mid-August, Bentley Systems announced the availability of three new products in its OpenPlant software line for plant creation based on an open data model. The company reports that the new plant offerings are the first commercially available products to share and meet the primary goal of the iRING user community — that is, to enable real-time sharing and interoperability of data and information across different organizations and systems using an internationally recognized standard. iRING (ISO 15926 Real-Time Interoperable Network Grids) implementations address the challenging workflow requirements of globally distributed and sourced plant projects. The new plant applications enhance interoperability across data formats, workflows, and plant design systems, and extend the integration of Bentley OpenPlant across multiple infrastructure disciplines.

Regarding the new OpenPlant products, Bruce Strupp, CPE-design technology director for CH2M HILL, a provider of consulting, program management, design, construction, and operations solutions, said, "CH2M HILL has been an active member and participant in both FIATECH and, more recently, the iRING community of users. We're committed to the goals of these organizations to achieve true interoperability and deliver business value through ISO 15926, and are delighted to see Bentley standing up to meet these challenges. The capabilities being delivered by Bentley with these new products are what the iRING community has been waiting for."

Commenting on the new offerings, Bhupinder Singh, Bentley senior vice-president, said, "Bentley announced its OpenPlant strategy for enhanced interoperability in 2008. In 2009, the iRING user community demonstrated, using prototype software, the benefits of interoperability achievable with a full technical implementation of ISO 15926. Leveraging our MicroStation and ProjectWise platforms, the new OpenPlant applications enable users to achieve that level of real-time interoperability by using software that's now commercially available."

The three new Bentley OpenPlant products are:

Bentley OpenPlant Modeler V8i, the first 3D plant modeling application to natively use the ISO 15926 data model as specified by the iRING user community, incorporating the capabilities of Bentley's MicroStation V8i platform for plant creation and infrastructure design. OpenPlant Modeler V8i is the only plant modeling software to natively support workflows that combine commonly used software standards including DGN, RealDWG, point clouds, and PDF, Bentley reports.

Bentley OpenPlant ModelServer V8i, the first plant design server software to manage files and components — and described by Bentley as ideal for globally sourced projects that are necessarily loosely coupled. Data management capabilities of OpenPlant ModelServer V8i support interoperable workflows across multiple design environments, including Intergraph's PDS and Bentley's AutoPLANT and PlantSpace.

Bentley OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i, the first isometrics generation software to extract and incorporate complete intelligence from 3D plant models, automatically and in real time, according to Bentley. Such on-demand intelligent isometric views remain relevant for owner-operators throughout the plant lifecycle — beyond procurement, fabrication, and construction to maintenance and compliance.

The Model Component Browser in OpenPlant Modeler V8i provides a concise breakdown of the contents of the model repository.

Anne-Marie Walters, Bentley global marketing director, said, "Our new additions to OpenPlant are key facets of our Smart Plan for PDS users that we introduced in March. The plan provides users of PDS software around the world with an economical migration path that protects their knowledge investments and enables them to reuse their catalogs, specifications, and PDS databases."

Bentley also announced the next versions of Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i and ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service V8i. Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i is the only commercial software for process and instrumentation diagrams to be based on a completely open data model. The V8i (SELECTseries 3) version adds support for ProjectWise Managed Workspaces and common specifications/catalogs, and shares the same iRING-enabling schema with OpenPlant Modeler. ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service V8i enables real-time interactive workflows to visualize, query, analyze, and annotate complete PDS data, and to extract i-models and V8 DGN files directly and completely from the PDS relational database.

About the Author: Cadalyst Staff

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen guides you through a different AutoCAD feature in every edition of her popular "Circles and Lines" tutorial series. For even more AutoCAD how-to, check out Lynn's quick tips in the Cadalyst Video Gallery. Subscribe to Cadalyst's free Tips & Tools Weekly e-newsletter and we'll notify you every time a new video tip is published. All exclusively from Cadalyst!Follow Lynn on Twitter

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